The Price Of Freedom
by Chiiharu
Summary: Is it too much to ask that I die for the cause? Better a martyr than a prisoner. This anger is sadly a part of me. If that's what it takes then I'll die trying. I'll die for the cause. I'll always have what's inside of me. I'll always have my memories.


**A/N:** Hey everyone. How's February for everyone?

This is a part of my oneshot series thingy thingy that I'm really considering is turning into huge individual spin-offs. XD Now, remember chapter six in CCFA when Sayuri and Kohana got into that big fight? Course you do. Not you, Mr. Mac, but you can go read it if you want to be informed. XD;;; Though you don't have to. This is an AU playing with that. Which means all of this stuff doesn't really happen. So no, it's not real.

I wrote this in late September or something along those lines, and I really liked this oneshot.

Sis, I know you're going to like it too because it's Kohana-centric kinda. XD She likes her Kohana, as do I. This is going to make her happy. It made me happy. XD Kohana for the WIN. XD

And of course, this is for my auntie Matilda again. She said the Kohana/Sayuri relationship intrigued her, so she wanted me to do something with them. I _couldn't_ refuse. XD

It's at times like these where I wish I could write more Kohana. *sigh* Because she really _is_ awesome. I don't think Sayuri specified it... But it's been a few years in this fic, so that means Sayuri is prolly in her... Twenties. I had an age back in September, I just don't know where it's hiding from me in my brain. This story had about three different tittles before I decided on this one. Heck, I want to change it now. XD Anyway, I was thinking about hero stuff, and I'm really into hero-stuff now. You'll see what I mean by that in a second. ^_^

I might so something else hero-oriented. Dealing with other people and whatnot. XD

I really, really, really, INSANELY like Kohana. XD

Like, she's my favorite character in CCFA. XD The Cyniclons are lucky they have her.

* * *

**-: The Price Of Freedom :-**

_With pride, you'll reach what we both stood for_

_With hope and faith, I will be gone no longer..._

_Darkness shall not go on._

_And I want you, want you to hold for..._

_If I'm not there behind you..._

_The strength inside, I know will come through._

Well, this was new. Never had I seen the sky so orange and red before.

I glanced at it quickly before my grip tightened on my weapon. They were chanting my name, every last one of them. They all had such faith in me, but I knew I hadn't done anything to actually _gain_ their faith. Gracefully, I ducked down, a swift wind blowing across the top of my head. This became routine and I almost memorized the exact moves that I should have taken to get the job done. It was getting old and tedious. I had to put an end to this and I was more than capable of doing it. It was just… All of those people kept getting in my way. They stood in the streets and walked around all day long just_ staring_ at the sky. What were they thinking about?! Were they hoping for some sort of change? Of course they were. But I wasn't sure if I was going to be the person that brought them that change.

It had been a couple of years since Japan had been blown to smithereens by Kohana. And the more I looked back on it, the more hopeless I felt. I should have been able to do something about it. Luckily, most of Japan was salvageable. It took a long time, but with long nights of training and concentration, I figured out how to bend time. I know that sounds like I solved the problem, right? Wrong. I didn't solve anything. I only wish I had. I was able to mend time before things turned back to normal. Just think about it. All of those years of training and I was still unable to do anything. But I wasn't going to give up. Eventually Miyuki had gotten cross with me. Said I was afraid to do what needed to be done. That Kohana was closer to me than I thought. I would have believed her if I didn't know she was saying that just to save her ass. When Kohana transformed, not only did she make Japan a playground full of bodies, but she had turned the place into some mythical flower-play land.

Everyone who she didn't kill had been infused with some kind of flower. At first there weren't many of them and I was confused about whether or not I should have wiped them all out. But seeing as how they were still humans—and that they resembled their plant counterparts very loosely—I couldn't work up the nerve to kill them. Actually, I couldn't kill _anything_ back then even if I wanted to. Blood was freakin' scary, bones were better inside someone's body and skin was better wrapped _around s_omeone's body. Miyuki couldn't go back to Spectra because they thought she would bring back the virus that had taken most of Japan whole. The people here on Earth called it the White Chrysanthemum. It was rumored that Kohana herself had decided on that name. The meaning of the name was supposed to be 'truth'. I thought that things could only get _better_ after Kohana's attack, but things only got worse. Remember when I said there weren't many people that were infected with Kohana's virus?

Wrong.

It appeared that way in the beginning. I bet you didn't know that it typically takes plants up to forty days to die after going through its whole life cycle process. Well, I was an idiot for not remembering that. I had worked with flowers since my mother forced me to help her with planting them. But that was such a long time ago… I barely knew anything back then. Anyway, they started to reproduce, making more monstrous forms of themselves. And they were reproducing _fast._ Faster than I could control them. I was confused now, not knowing whether I should had cut the numbers down or left them alone. After all, all I was trying to do was save them from themselves. In the long run, Miyuki disappeared. I didn't know where she had gone. I didn't feel hate or joy—I was just really confused. It was then that I started thinking that I wasn't cut out for the job. And if I wasn't cut out for the job, no one was.

But this place needed someone to correct it, and I knew that person was me.

But now I hated them. I hated the things that they had become. There were so many of them and they were suffocating me. Every time I glanced around me I was reminded of my past failures. It's amazing how survival of the fittest works. The people that I once thrived to protect began to get ravenous. Guess who was the first target? Of course_ I_ was the object of their interest. They started forming gangs, antagonizing others of their kind, and ultimately attacking each other for nourishment. I had always grown up thinking plants didn't eat people or things. In science class, I was taught that plants made food in their leaves from water, nutrients, energy from the sun and carbon dioxide. That's when I ruled out that this wasn't a virus or something. It was a _mutation. _These people weren't humans. They were _monsters._ They weren't completely monsters yet, but they were getting damn near close to becoming full-blown _fiends._ The things were becoming less and less able to speak, control their emotions, _and hold in their feces_. It was getting _bad_.

The first thing I wanted to do was tell Miyuki what I had found out. That this mutation was going to spread and it was going to spread quickly. Every wave was going to be more vicious than the other. ...And it didn't travel in the air. It was traveling _in the ground_. But wait. If that was true—and it had taken me several months to figure that out—I should have been infected… at least a little… and so should Miyuki. My partners—Morta and Kokoro—were still alive as well, but I figured that since they were Summoners like I was, they couldn't be effected.

Every day it seemed as if I was making new discoveries about this place and the people that inhabited it. There had to be a logical reason behind that logic—the logic behind the fact that Miyuki and I were okay—but any connections that I could draw between us were just silly. Everything just stopped making sense. Why were we the only two not bothered by this mutation in my sector? I damn sure didn't have anything to do with the mutation, but then that made me suspect that Miyuki was being a tad sketchy. That's when I found out Miyuki wasn't Miyuki at all. Miyuki was Kohana at that time and the original had been killed way back when. It only made sense. You thought I was devastated or pissed off? Hell no. I didn't really like Miyuki anyway and I figured I'd work better alone. I was no scientist, so this was really aggravating, trying to come up with a way to stop the mutation.

Well, guess what? Studying and researching was getting old. Things were falling out of my hands faster than I could catch them. I needed the people who weren't too messed up to stay alive so I could administer treatments. The people who had turned into monsters weren't making that easy for me, since they always seemed to attack the people who resembled humans first. Well, at least they didn't discriminate. My impatience was getting the better of me.

I hated them all.

Not just the latter, but the former as well. I had made up my mind and I was just going to wipe everyone out. To save them from themselves. And I was going to see what would happen from there. If there's no problem, I don't need to find a solution, right? Exactly. But then things like this started happening. The people who weren't severely mutated started to depend on me, like I was their only means of survival. To them, I was the most 'normal' looking thing they had ever laid eyes on. They started to worship me like I was some kind of goddess. They brought me things I didn't need, told me things I didn't want to know… it was sad. I took a swift step to the side, dodging a stab from my leafy enemy, my hair swaying behind me. I slowly brought my wand in front of me, and with one hand I traced the shape of it.

"With this rope I bind thine power, to be mine for second or hour. To make me strong when I am weak. To give me wisdom that I seek. To give me courage as not to flee. Thine will be done, so mot it be." Once I finished my chant, the tip of my wand began to secrete a misty, blue-grayish substance. Soon, my irises turned the same color, and my opponent stared at my newly found power. I forced my wand into the ground, leaving it there and making fists to stretch out my fingers.

During my time in Japan, did you really think I did nothing?

I caught as many Essences as I could. I used the CWP Essence, which was a combination of three Essences: courage, wisdom, and power. I had learned to combine them, rather than use them in separate quantities. My opponent let out a muffled cry before charging towards me. After all of that, all I could hear was the deafening sounds of people cheering me on before I let the battle actually begin. Everything had happened quickly. My movements were very fast. I almost lost track of what I was doing. I took one step and appeared right in front of my foe, punching it in the neck and sending it flying through a few buildings. But I wasn't done. Debris began to float around in the air as I slowed my pace.

"Man, it's too late for this stuff," I said, yawning a bit. I covered my mouth with my hand. "Don't you realize that I've already got you—" I stopped mid-sentence, reaching behind me and grabbing another guy's arm. I swung him into the building that I had just swung his buddy into. It was sad. In an instant I heard cries of screeching pain. I flinched a bit, getting to where my opponents were in about ten seconds flat. I sat down next to the two dazed mutations and put an amused look on my face. "Man… you two don't look so good right now," I cooed, twisting my hair inside my hands and puckering my lips. "Was it really worth it, tangoing with me? Tell you what, I'll give you a chance to go on your marry way before I start blowing stuff up." I was answered with razor sharp thorns being shot in my direction, to which I reacted fairly quickly to. I disappeared and reappeared in front of my two antagonists, holding my wand in my hand lethargically.

"The ever-turning wheel of the year has made the light ever stronger, hasn't it?" I chanted, my wand glowing a deep red. "The light has kept growing longer until today. The light is at its peak, midsummer's day, and a summer solstice." I pointed my wand at the monsters that were trying desperately to get up and cause me damage.

But it was no use.

Either the flare Essence was going to burn them up to a crisp or they weren't going to be fast enough to hurt me. "Goodbye and good riddance!" There was this blinding red light that had shot out my wand, causing a sound to escape from it similar to laser guns being fired in video games. Their bodies turned into these balls of bright, multi-colored light that ascended into the air until they disappeared. I closed my eyes before opening them again, small, white zinnia acerosa left in the place they once laid. I scowled a bit, sighing. That was the problem. Every time I killed one of these things, flowers would always pop up. Since the mutation traveled in the earth, the flowers become easily mutated and evolve into more trouble for me. I had to remember to pluck them from the ground. And there wasn't any really easy way to do it. You have to make sure you pull up the roots. Yawning, I crouched down to pull the thing out, detransforming as I did so.

The sun was setting as the crowd that I had left earlier began to chant and cheer for me. At first their voices were faint, but then I turned around and saw them coming closer towards me. That battle had taken a lot of my energy. I was never one to hold in all of my power. Lets face it, I liked to razzle-dazzle people, even if it meant busting out the better moves I had. And if that put a smile on all these hopeless peoples' faces, I was in it for the long run. I pulled the flowers out of the ground and stood up straight, putting on the brightest smile I could muster.

Because that was my job.

Everyone was good at saying "Great job, Sayuri. You did it. You saved us all." There were too many smiles to count. And I know that I was smiling, too. But now... When I look back... The people who should have been here with me aren't. The ones who should have been smiling with me weren't here. They were all so happy. Some even cried. And it didn't matter how I was feeling. But I _had_ to smile. Because I was the 'hero'. The 'leader'. Because if I didn't smile, people would piss their pants and panic. Anarchy would rule the streets without me. The only thing that mattered was that I wasn't happy on the inside. My grip tightened around the stems of the flowers until I felt something move in my pants pocket. It was too dark for this stuff. I groaned before reaching for the phone in my pocket.

Not even bothering to look at it, I flipped my phone open. "Hello?" It was kind of static on the other end, and so I switched my footing and looked at the crowd of people just staring at me. At least greet me! I was so tired from fighting. I just wanted to go home and sleep. It was the last thing I even had to my name. The right to dream. That's right, I still had those dreams. Recently… my dreams had been about many different worlds. And in each of those worlds, bad things happened. It's as if they needed me… but I couldn't do anything because I was so far away from them. I waited with the phone in my hand.

"Sayuri you've done it aga—" I did a backhand-spring away from the group of monsters. My face dropped, and so did my phone. An orange like substance shot out of the person's mouth who was talking to me, leaving the group of about seven mutations and I to stare blankly at each other. Without so much of a warning, they came at me. See, this was what I was talking about. It's all about survival of the fittest. I could have just let it ago. Talked it out with them. Told them that I wasn't going to do anything to them. But this was just the grotesque behavior I was talking about. And I hated them for it. I took my stance, my clothing pealing way once more and revealing my Summoner outfit. It now consisted of a purple satin shantung corset dress with boning to the waist, front hook and eye closure, and front-and-back lace-up details. I also wore three-inch high-heeled boots that laced up on the sides.

As if it knew what I wanted, my wand appeared in my hands, my hair trailing down my back. "Strength of day, strength of night, give me strength beyond my sight!" I barely had enough time to finish that. My left hand gripped the very end of my wand, my pinky finger allowed to project beyond the end of it. My right hand stayed to my side. They all ran towards me, and I just began slashing at them. I had used the sharpening Essence, making my wand a lethal weapon for a short period of time. I'd say I had taken down more than half of the monsters before my wand slipped out of my hands. The mutation in front of me stared at me for a long time. I don't think it truly wanted to cross me, as it had just seen what I had done to its comrades. Not having a whole lot of time, I threw a punch at the monster, who clearly knew it was coming and grabbed it with its leaf-hand. I smirked. "Impressive." I followed my attack up with a punch from my other hand, which it caught as well. Getting slightly pissed, I then employed a sidekick, pebbles from the ground joining my onslaught. My leg was stuck in-between the fiend's neck and shoulder blade, and it seemed as if I hadn't done any damage to it at all.

Something bug sounding—like a cricket—curled up inside the creature, letting me know I was going to be in some serious shit if I hadn't done anything. I was _exhausted. _

"_And I'm here to say that you're the star you wanna be…"_

I gritted my teeth as my phone persisted on ringing. I launched backwards into the air with my free foot, kicking the thing in the chin, those multicolored orbs flying into the air and then disappearing again. There were about three of them left, and I really had no time for this. I extended my hand; a small purple pentagram appeared in front of it before the three creatures began to make slow, slobbering noises. Time around them began to bend and I formed a fist, the monsters disappearing. Once again, those mysterious orbs filled the air, along with a crapload of flowers just popping up out of the ground. Now I was pissed off.

"_Someday you'll sing it out loud. One day this will make you proud…."_

Out of rage, I balled my fists up and began to stomp the pink-colored flowers. All that work I did earlier was just for nothing! I busted my ass to help save those people, and they attacked me! Imagine the irony of that! I couldn't imagine becoming something like that! Even though I was blinded with rage, I couldn't help but feel hopeless. So what if I killed all these guys? They'd just come back… and I'd have to do the same thing I did today.

"_I'm here to say that you're the star you wanna be… Just open up and look inside and you will see…"_

"That's quite the temper tantrum, Sayuri…"

I narrowed my eyes, still stomping the flowers and looking at the dirt. "So what? You do have a plan on how to take these things out, right? Glad to see you came from the other side of Japan just to watch me get my ass handed to me, Kokoro. You're still on your shift, remember?"

"I know we're still on our shift. And yes, I know how wrong it is to come out early and stuff, but no, you shouldn't get this mad over me just coming here."

I scowled a bit, and I was going to say something until I heard this soft meowing of some sort. I looked behind me, and I saw this snow-white colored kitten. I didn't know things like it were still alive. And it was in such great condition, too. It was really a once in a life time thing. I was going to ask Kokoro if it was his cat, but it kind of just nuzzled up against my leg.

"We would have never known you were here if the cat hadn't sniffed you out for us. It's like a dog, isn't it?" Morta joined in, appearing from freaking out of nowhere. I didn't know if I was still allergic to cats, but ever since Miyuki had bitten my leg that one day, all my allergies had just vanished. I took two steps away from it, and the Kokoro thought it would be his responsibility to pick up the cat. I snorted a bit and folded my arms.

"Uh-huh. While you two are down here, you could be saving… Well… I dunno…_ thousands of lives_? And you guys are playing with a cat? How sane do you think that sounds?"

"It's small," Morta said, totally ignoring everything I had just said.

"I say we name it Pocket!" Kokoro interjected. I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Okay something was definitely up with these two and I was getting too old not to take all of this stuff lightly. Ever since Kohana had blown this place up to hell… I mean… Japan's a big place, and we needed to split up in order to preserve it. "Yeah, Pocket will work just fine because it's so small, right?" All of a sudden, the cat started hissing like crazy, like it didn't like them. I rose a brow, getting weary, and then the cat scratched Kokoro's hand, which made him drop it on the ground. But cats always land on their toes. I just wished that I was that agile.

I put my index finger on my lip. "Hey, you guys wouldn't mind if I did a quick check to see if you're the real Kokoro and Morta, would you?"

"Sayuri, you're paranoid," Morta shot. "Of course we are."

"Or maybe I'm just too smart…" I muttered. "Hey, what's your favorite color, Morta?" She actually seemed pretty revolted when I asked her it. "Come on, it's just a question, right, _Morta?_"

"It's red, and you know that," she shot again.

"Wrong. It's green," I said. I put on a sly smirk, hoping she would fall into my trap. Truth was, I didn't give two shits about what Morta's favorite color was. I didn't even know Morta's favorite color. And if this was a fake Morta, she wouldn't either. So she would believe anything I told her, at this point. She and Kokoro stopped everything they were doing, which let me know that I was going to have to fight again. Oh joy. I summoned my wand again, but before I could say anything, I was hit with this really bright light. I quickly opened my eyes, not going to be willingly blindsided. And what I saw probably scared the ghost out of me. There was a woman in an extremely long white dress, and she had waist length hair. Actually, her hair was sprinkled in leaves, and she stood on the far side of the building that I was in. The building was huge, and, judging by how the windows were made, I came to the conclusion that we were in a chapel. I hadn't noticed it before, but she had a pair of wings. Needless to say, the wings were very appealing. They were multicolored. I wanted them too.

"Nice to see you again, Sayuri."

I looked at Kohana, and I was suddenly hit with everything that happened during my battle with her eight years ago. Rage filled my body, but I kept my composure, gritting my teeth a little. I clutched my wand and looked towards Pocket. I wanted Kohana to just disappear from my sight. I absolutely hated seeing her now, and I sure as hell wasn't going to stand here and watch her make of mess of my salvaged life. I looked at her, and I knew she could change for the better. It wasn't too late. It was never too late. I wanted to ask her so many questions, but I knew that she was done with answering them. I found myself throwing out my hands.

"What is it that you're after, Kohana?!"

"World domination," she replied, solemnly. She looked towards the ground and her white irises seemed to sparkle, her wings glittering when she moved.

"That's not even funny, man!"

"How about... revenge?"

"For what, Kohana?!?"

My mother seemed to look in the other direction. She was a coward. "A monster's objective is usually world domination or revenge." She emphasized that by pointing behind her. White feathers started to float all around us. I swallowed my pride. I wasn't going to rush into things and there might have been hope for her.

"You're wrong," I said, grasping one of the nearby feathers. "Those aren't the wings of a monster."

"Well then... What are they?" Kohana asked, sounding bored. I knew she was getting kind of restless with me. I had to be quick about this.

I put my index finger on my chin and closed my eyes. "Angel's wings?"

"I see," she said, calmly. "Then what should an angel fight for, Sayuri?!!!" Kohana yelled, her voice cracking out of sheer anger. "What do they _dream _of?!!" I started to back up, not sure of what I should have told Kohana. I was only making the situation worse, and that was what I was good at. Kohana started to walk towards me... which made me start to sweat bullets. This wasn't good. This was horrible.

"Angels dream of one thing." She said, stopping. I looked up and threw my arms out towards her.

"Please! Tell me!"

"To be human," she said. And I swear I didn't even see her move, but she had thrust me in the stomach and I flew on the other side of the chapel. I managed to get up and put a smile on my face. I didn't see her as this monster. I still saw her as my mother... purple hair blowing well-past her shoulders and her green eyes... glowing like my own. I couldn't fight her.

"Protect yourself, Sayuri!" Kohana hissed, preparing her next attack. Even though... even though it burned me just to look at her... even though I really wanted to kill her with everything I had, I couldn't. My vision started blurring—not because I was losing the battle—but because tears were welding up in my eyes.

**.**

"You want to hear about something fun your grandmother always told me, Sayuri?" the purple-haired woman said, stroking Sayuri's long, oily hair. Sayuri rested her head in Kohana's lap, happily drifting to sleep. The girl found the strength to nod her head, which made Kohana smile. "Hold on to your dreams."

Sayuri slowly picked her head up and stared at her mother in amazement. Being that she was only ten-years-old, she was prone to not understanding a lot of things. "Huh, Mom?" Kohana smiled even more-so and picked her daughter up. Sayuri now stood on her own two feet, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

"If you want to be a hero, you have to hold on to your dreams—and pride. Never lose your dreams. Also, no matter the situation never let go of your pride as a Summoner." The woman left the room, leaving an astonished and bewildered Sayuri left thinking about what her mother had just told her.

**.**

"How the hell could you have done something like this?! Huh?!" I paused, glancing all around me. Even though we were in a chapel, we both knew fairly well what was around us. Death. Destruction. Anarchy. "Is this—is this suppose to be your idea of freakin' pride?!" I ran up to her and grabbed her by her dress, pulling her up into the air. I looked at her with my tear-filled eyes, hoping something would flash in her head.

"They all no longer had a reason to live. And I'm guilty of the same crime," Kohana said in a monotonous voice. Everything she said had only made me angrier and that was what I didn't want to happen.

"Stop saying things I don't understand! Explain yourself now, Kohana!!" I screamed, stray tears flying out of my eyes while I shook my head in disappointment. My head was spinning. Images of Kohana throughout the years began to resurface in my head.

"_I told you... I can't live like that anymore."_

"Kohana! Kohana! Please talk to me! Tell me something!" I yelled, ignoring the voice in my head. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!!!"

"Sayuri… I never knew you had it in you. I didn't mean for this to happen," she murmured, clutching my face. I let her down on the ground. She was a liar. It took me everything I had to keep from punching her in the mouth. Pocket started to hiss at Kohana and I glanced at him through the corner of my eyes. "I see you've found a new friend, Sayuri. But unfortunately, you can't have friends when I'm around." My eyes widened as I broke away from my mother. Pocket started to whimper now and it was like he knew what Kohana was planning from the get-go. I was fuming, my face red.

"You better not have done anything to Kokoro and Morta." I growled, my eyes gleaming with animosity. "I was planning on taking you out anyway. Stop the mutation from spreading. You better wish you didn't make a mistake. You'll only fuel my fire." There was a long pause until Kohana started walking around me. She was slowly taking me apart but that's what she wanted to do. She wanted to take me apart mentally, defeating me way before the battle even began. Could she do that? Could she take me out with no physical contact at all? "Why aren't you saying anything?!" I screamed, throwing my arms out to my sides. Before I could add on to my sentence, I heard this huge popping sound. Like popcorn blowing up in a microwave. I flinched, frantically looking for my new friend. He was probably all I had to remember Kokoro and Morta, but I wasn't desperate enough to believe that they were dead just yet.

"Pocket?! Pocket?!" I dropped on my knees, reaching out to where he once stood. "Wha—wha—wha… what did you do—" I whispered, my eyes tearing up. There were bloods and guts where he once stood but I didn't see his body anywhere. I turned back towards Kohana who was playing in her white hair. She didn't show any type of remorse. She knew I was trying to play it safe and keep my cool. I didn't want to rush into battle like I had done the last time I fought her. However, I couldn't hold all of my anger in and I started punching the cold, dusty floor. I didn't want another person to die because of me! If I could, I would have saved Pocket a thousand times over!

"Sayuri. If you really cared about Pocket you would try to bring him back. Isn't that what you always plan to do? Bring back the ones you love even though it is impossible to do so?"

"Shut your face," I snapped. "You know as well as I do that I control time, not lives! Time and death are two different things, and even then, death can't bring back the ones who died because of you, as Morta demonstrated a couple of years ago. If I couldn't bring you back, Mother, then how can I ever bring back someone I love? Every time I fail at one thing, I fail a lot harder at something else. I fail at everything I do… And it's true… I was born to fail wasn't I?" Kohana just laughed at me, her once sweet-sounding motherly voice coming off like something brought up from hell.

"You don't love me, Sayuri?"

"I don't love you, Kohana." I gritted my teeth. "I idolized you. I did more than love you, _I looked up to you_. And you betrayed me and did something totally outrageous. And you know what? I still idolize you. Not because of the power you have, or what you can do to a whole civilization, but because you're still my mother no matter how demented you are. But you must die," I said curtly. Kohana arched an eyebrow at me and lifted her hand, possibly telling me to try to bring Pocket back. I sighed, extending my hand. "Think of this as the last thing I'll do for you," I said, a purple pentagram forming in front of my hand. At first, I thought it was going to work for a second, but my magic faded, further proving my hypothesis right.

"Think of this as an extension of my power, Sayuri," Kohana said with joy in her voice, doing the same thing that I did. She extended her hand to where Pocket was standing… And… My God. I didn't want to believe it, but Pocket came. Back. To. Life. He looked absolutely fine. I glanced at Kohana with my mouth wide open. I shook my head with disbelief, trying to get words out of my mouth but nothing came out of it. I clutched my wand and used the courage Essence. I wasn't even going to lie; I needed that Essence more than I needed to _breathe. _

"How the hell can you do that?! I won't believe it! My powers are that far underdeveloped compared to yours? You used time magic, didn't you? But you broke the fundamental laws of it! You can't bring people back with time!" I found myself screaming at my mother, tears raining from my eyes. "You can't, you can't, and you can't do that, Kohana!"

"Of course I can! Why not, Sayuri dearest? I am not a Summoner. I am not your friend. I am The Wickedness. And what you don't know is that The Wickedness knows everything every single Summoner knows when they first start their pilgrimage. The only spells I don't know are the ones hidden away inside the temples which you know nothing about because you never really had a pilgrimage. Yes, you are a strong Summoner, and yes you had a great guardian, but for what? There are Essences that can bring back the dead…" Kohana looked towards her shoulder and now Pocket was standing on it. My jaw dropped with rage as Pocket started growling at _me_. _**Me.**_ And Kohana's facial expression still didn't change. "You shouldn't fight me now. No matter how hard you train, you will never gain the power to defeat me. You'll get stronger and I'll get even stronger. It's a never ending cycle."

"Shut the hell up!!!" I screamed in aggravation.

"Your scream is so shrill Sayuri. It reminds me of how your friends screamed when they were being crucified by my creations. The Hydrangea."

I could have sworn everything around me stopped. My eyebrow twitched and I seriously didn't understand what she had said for about three seconds. "The hell did you just say…?"

"Your friends. I'm pretty sure I made myself clear with that, Sayuri. They told me that when they nailed Morta up to the post, she didn't show any emotion. But when they brought out the iron club and began to shatter her legs, she was more than willing to start screaming like you just did… And she was lucky. What they did to Kokoro was much, much worse. They said he squealed like a little girl." I blinked several times over before the clinch I had on my wand tightened without my consent. I thought I was going to break it in half. I knew I was running straight into her trap, but the things she had just said were absolutely unforgivable!

"If you want a fight," I grunted, standing up and running towards my mother. She was a couple of yards ahead of me but that wasn't going to stop me. "Then I'm going to make you wish you died of old age a long time ago you flower-monster!!!" And that didn't come out as calm as I had hoped for it to be. My voice was shaky and kind of desperate-sounding. My wand started to glow as I waved it in front of me.

"Cascade down in a silent renegade of sweet—Pocket!" I stopped running and stood dead in my tracks because I saw the kitten running towards me, his claws extended and ready to give me hell. He pounced on my leg, his claws seeping deep within it. Pocket honestly reminded me of Miyuki. Yeah, it hurt like hell, but I had to pull Pocket off my leg. His claws didn't want to release themselves from my skin, so I ended up with four lines trailing up my leg. I held him far away from my body in front of me and glanced down at the ground. A withered, stripped dianthus caryophyllus miraculously appeared in the place where he was standing. I frowned. Intensely. Pocket was desperate to try and hurt me because he kept clawing up my hands and fingers. He was obviously trying to get to my face.

"You too, huh?" I sighed. I glanced at Kohana and then put my focus back on Pocket. My fingers and hands were a bloody mess. I knew that Kohana thought I was going to stop fighting her… That I loved Pocket enough to stop the fight between us, but I was on a whole 'nother level. I whimpered like a little puppy at the thought but I had to do something about Pocket. I closed my eyes and heard things ripping apart on this most inhumane way possible. Glands, tendons, muscles… I heard them just tearing apart. "I'm sorry…" I muttered. Kohana watched me as I picked up my wand and then I dusted my hands off. Pocket was in two complete pieces, his head on the left side of the room, his body on the right. I snarled. "Let's see you change it now!!" I exclaimed, my voice echoing throughout the church. I stomped the flower multiple times. "This new religion you claim to be the White Chrysanthemum or whatever the hell you want to call it now… Let's see if it's still standing when I'm done with you, Kohana!!!"

After I was done saying that, this huge burst of purple light shot from Kohana and then she cracked the wickedest smile I've ever seen her smile in my life. "Yes, Sayuri. Come and fight me! That's what you want to do, right? And then we can be alone! Together! And it will be only you and me! We will live in a world where there's no such thing as fighting! Oh how much fun we'll have!" The light got brighter and before I knew it the church had been obliterated and we were the only things left standing. Fragments… Or pieces that were left of the church were stuck in the ground around us, forming a little dome. A lot of those monsters… The Hydrangea started crowding around us. There must have been thousands of them and they all looked the same. There were no almost-Hydrangea but they were all full-fledged mutations. I gulped down my pride… I was in some serious trouble and my feelings were written all over my face. Kohana smirked at me.

"Let me let you in on a little secret, Sayuri. Kill me and everything goes back to normal, got that?" My heart jumped out of my throat when she said that. All this time I thought I was fighting for a lost cause… "Everyone who got killed that day… Everyone who I've killed today… Everyone who has begged for mercy at my feet will come back. And I shall die."

"Wonderful." I smirked back at her. "I don't want you in my life, Kohana."

Kohana lifted up her arms towards all the Hydrangea. "Look at the people who ripped apart your friends! They want to see you _die!"_ My eyes widened and I could have sworn I didn't want to do anything to them, but I looked around the crowd and lifted my wand in the air. My brain was telling my body not to hurt anyone else, but my heart was telling me to kill all of those bastards.

"_It wasn't their fault." _

"_They destroyed your life when you tried to save theirs." _

I was slowly starting to lose control of my body and I was losing way too much blood. Damn it, I had let Kohana get to me like she planned to from the get-go. My wand was getting heavier to hold. "Sayuri, how can you call me a monster when you were just thinking about killing thousands of people you claim to be saving?"

"I wasn't!" I yelled back. "And they're not people! They're fucking monsters!" I paused, kind of regretting what I had just said. But a part of me wanted to move along with my current tangent. "You know that more than I do, Kohana, and that's why you're smirking at me. They don't act, think, or look anything like humans." I heard a bunch of booing being accompanied by spit. Thankfully, none of that spit was hitting me because it was made out of acid... and that would have been bad. But I didn't care. Someone had to start telling the truth around here.

"So you're saying you're human, Sayuri?"

"We're _all_ monsters," I replied curtly. "Some of us are just more malicious than others. So then who's the bigger monster, Mom? You or me? The one who turned a whole civilization into something dark and bleak, or the one who'd destroy that civilization to make sure the thing she calls 'peace' is ensured?"

"Being a hero is _a choice._" And then my mother cackled. "I think we both know the answer to that."

"Trick question!" Kohana and I exclaimed, taking our stances. Damn right it was a trick question. A trick question is when someone asks something that assumes something that isn't really true. And it's rhetorical either way you ask it. You can only answer a trick question in one way. If Kohana answered yes or no, she'd admit to being a monster. I turned around to give the people a thumbs up, something to give them hope and something that told them I was going to win since Kohana didn't look like she was going to attack me. I put my hand in the air and almost immediately sensed someone behind me. Before I could react—because she was so fast—I felt something go through me. I staggered for a bit and turned around before dropping my wand. I immediately grabbed my side, and too my horror, Kohana had found a way to stab me, missing my lung by maybe a _centimeter_. Blood started pouring out of me. Damn, I knew I was in some trouble.

"Let's give them a show of a lifetime," Kohana said with no real emotion. She kissed me on the cheek. I started panicking. There was no way I could beat her with all the wounds I had. First I had to find out what it was that she had stabbed me with. I studied my mother and came to a shocking realization. She had managed to stab me with my wand but I was pretty sure I had it in my hands once she stabbed me. So then how did she have it in her hands now? Before I even had a chance to think, vines started to shoot up from the ground. My reaction time was slow and normally I could predict what my enemies movements were. Time was what I had. I grabbed my arm, the one that was closest to my wound and started to run, dogging each vine she sent at me.

But then something unexpected happened.

"Oh hell!" I exclaimed, stopping. A vine came out of a portal in front of me and I did a hand-spring backwards, stopping mid-stride, a pentagram appearing underneath my feet. I was standing horizontally in the air and started running again. I had thought I outsmarted both Kohana and the vines, when really I was fighting two different people. Kohana appeared right in front of me and pointed my own wand in my face.

Then it started to glow a bright red. I cursed under my breath and I honestly thought I was dead at that point. She could have blown off_ my face _and I would have been none-the-wiser because the fire Essence would have killed me anyway. I was running on borrowed time because something was giving me the strength to dodge everything she was throwing at me. I pivoted to the left and ran around her.

"Running from your problems won't help you, Sayuri! Because that's what you've been doing all your life."

"Says you, bitch," I hissed. "You'll see. Wait. How the hell can you use my wand?!" I stopped running and turned around, facing her. The vines stopped following me too. She was an idiot for giving me more time to rest.

"I can't really use it," Kohana said, cackling. I tensed up. "I can only use the Essences of the Summoners I've killed, Sayuri. Ironic, isn't it?" If I could, I would have thrown my own body at Kohana and used it as a projectile if I knew it was going to do her any damage. "That's right; focus all your anger towards your liberator!" Blood was seeping from my mouth and I started running again. I thought the vines were going to chase me from behind, but this time they shot up from the ground and tried to_ impale_ me.

I positioned my feet on the tip of the vine, perspiration sliding off my forehead. The vine quickly went back into the Earth and before I could place my feet on the ground, the vine came back up again and did that _three more times_ before it figured it couldn't get me that easily. Kohana came out of flipping nowhere and punched me in the jaw, sending me flipping…_ flying_ through the air in a spiraling motion across the so called 'stadium'. I couldn't see straight when I hit the ground. Things were getting too hazy and that was a bad thing. Kohana slowly walked towards me and everything fell silent. I could hear the sound of her boots hitting the dirt. I couldn't move my head, but I saw her moving towards me.

"Any last words, Sayuri dear? Before I kill you?"

I blinked.

I blinked hard. "As I matter of fact… yes… Melancholy. Soundless melancholy." At first Kohana blinked and everyone in the crowd started talking amongst themselves in another monster-like language. She shrugged and pointed my wand at my head.

"Very well then. May you be happy in the afterlife, dearest daughter!" My wand flashed another shade of red, and I knew that was my cue. I clenched both of my hands, and strings—once invisible on the ground—raised up into the air. The light from the setting sun revealed their whereabouts and they all were wrapped around Kohana. I was supposed to be dead, but the Essence she had tried to kill me with didn't work. Kohana looked at her body, probably waiting for her beloved vines to come and kill me or something. She still had my wand in her hands but she wasn't a threat now. Slowly, I got up off the ground and wiped the blood away from my mouth.

"You… You know that chant I was saying when I was going to attack you, but Pocket jumped in the way? Yes, I never got to finish that chant. You thought it was something offensive, right? No, I was actually trying to use the null Essence, which enables the holder of my wand to fail at using any type of magic. There was a reason I had done that. You're way too cocky, Kohana. You think you're so much better than me, when you're really not." I paused, cracking a smile at her. She tried to let go of my wand, but my strings were wrapped around her hand_ and_ the wand, forbidding her from letting go of it. "My blood… The blood from_ my_ wounds? I… never told you that I learned how to mend time… That's… Something you'll never understand, but I mended it into the durable string that has you entangled."

Kohana was speechless and she looked at me with so much hate in her eyes. I limped towards her and she managed to lift her arm up, trying to stab me with the sharp end of my wand. I grabbed her arm and twisted it towards her neck. We had a struggle for about two minutes before I wrenched it inside her neck. As soon as I felt it was in there deep enough, I pushed it in further until it came out of the other side. She fell to the ground peacefully and all of the vines that were sticking out of the ground began to wither away.

My breathing started getting shorter as I looked into the sky. It seemed to spin around me and then I saw all those multicolored orbs floating into the sky. I looked forward and all I could see were _thousands _of Hydrangea. They all looked demented and prepared to take me down at all costs. I continued to breathe in and out slowly. "Honestly... The price of freedom sure is steep..." The thousands of Hydrangea turned to millions, and then the millions turned into zillions of green, flower-like monsters. They were all in front of me and I couldn't help but put a smirk on my face. I stood up straight and readied my wand, putting it out to my side. I extended my left hand, which was glowing purple, just like my wand.

I readied myself. She lied to me like I had predicted. Nothing turned back to the way it was. And _I _had to handle it. "Never lose your dreams. Also, no matter the situation... Never let go of your pride as—a Summoner!" I yelled, gripping my wand like I would have a baseball bat. Now I understood what Kohana had meant. "Irasshaimase!"

Their moves were predictable and I began to take a lot of them out. Seventeen of them would come after me at a time and I just had to ready my body for their attacks. They were really easy at the start of the battle, but then... During the course of it they started spitting at me, their corrosive saliva blowing up around me every time they did it. Voices were screaming at me inside my head but I had to concentrate. I was going to make a good thing out of this! I had to. I saw this... guy. And his hands were molded into some type of gun. It was pointed towards me, and I had tried to lift my arm up and do something, but I was shot at point-blank. I fell to the ground, bloodied and bruised, gazing at the stars...

I was trying to find the energy to breathe now. Flowers started to fall from nowhere, and that's when I realized that I was going to die. I collapsed onto the ground, my legs and arms spread out. I saw a feather float down in front of me and I reached out towards it. The feather was multicolored. From the corner of my dying corneas, I saw Morta's irritating wavy hair and Kokoro's dumb, out-of-place blonde streak in his hair. I cracked a smile. Either Kohana wasn't true to her word, or the world really did change back to the way it was.

"Sayuri?!" they both said in unison, sorta surprised that their leader was lying on the ground in front of them in cold blood. The Hydrangea were dead, so they probably didn't understand why I was so beat up.

"Kokoro, Morta?" I breathed. "On my behalf—"

"Your behalf?" Morta answered, unsure of what I was talking about.

"That's... right. You will—" I paused, unable to really form words. Kokoro knelled next to me.

"You will...? What are you trying to say, Sayuri?"

"Continue living. You are proof that I existed. My dreams and pride, I give it all to you." I lifted up my arm, and my wand magically appeared in it. I handed it to Kokoro. I still couldn't believe that they weren't grasping what was actually happening.

"I am proof that you existed...." Kokoro muttered, holding it in his hands.

Now I was sitting on top of a cliff that overlooked all of Japan. I saw everything. It was beautiful. The sky was clear and the sun was even shining on me. "Hold on to your dreams," I said. My gaze was stuck on the city, but I heard a blood-curdling shriek of anguish. I knew that Kokoro would figure it out eventually.

"Thank you. We won't forget. Goodnight, Sayuri."

My body started to disappear. "Those wings of yours, lend them to me as well," I said, standing up and looking at Kohana. "What's this? It feels great. Hey, I've become a hero, right?"

My mother just smiled.

"I… Want those wings too… Kohana…" I breathed again. I smiled as a whole bunch of orbs filled the starry night sky, as if they were painting a path for me to walk down. A hand extended towards mine and my smile seemed to only get bigger. It was Kohana and she was normal again. Her hair wasn't white and she wasn't wearing a ridiculously long white dress. She looked at me… And that was a good thing, for once.

"I love you, Sayuri."

"I got it mom." I whispered something to myself before she helped me up off the ground.

And I disappeared into a world of light.

* * *

_Change begins with you and I. Hard but yes, yes, we will try. We must, we must be strong, though it might take long._

_Petals fall as I gaze above. Tears pour down from a white dove._

_With pride, with hope, with faith... With pride...._

-- "With Pride" -- Ladyreemz98


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